Fuzz

Here starteth the lesson on changing the front suspension.
First off, placing the axle stands anywhere strong enough.
suspension has to be fully hanging for this bit.
plumped for rear gearbox crossmember, a little creaking but nothing bent so that was a start
First mod is :-
the Anti lift / Castor kit.


22mm spanner required to undo main nut and it was *quite tight*
so out came the air ratchet for the 2 bolts (19mm) that was easy
gearbox front crossmember was in the way to slide the old mount off lower arm, the instructions said to remove said front crossmember, I thought I would be smarter than that and took off the front lower arm mount. like so.

but this turned out to be not such a good idea as when the new mount is on the arm.

it put a twist in the original front mount so much so that I could not get the bolt to line up in the chassis.
off came the new mount, put the front bolt back in loose, a little more grease to the new mount as I managed to get it everywhere taking it off.
<mental note. put new mount out of body's reach so you don't lie on it and cover yourself in grease> >

with a little persuasion with a bar this time and it was quite easy to get the new mount on.

Voila.

all in all about an hours work for both sides.
next step would be to load up suspension with full weight of car before torquing up the bolts.
This worked out well as the fitting of the front antiroll bar and drop links require the suspension to be under compression (weight of car).
so off with the plastic sump guards to relocate jack and then move axle stands to under lower arms.

More after tea

Fuzz

BURP !!!!!

Fuzz

well I'm back infront of the pc and all is finished front and rear.
falling asleep though

the instructions for the anti lift kit said to "torque" up the bolts after bouncing on the suspension a few times to settle it"
"first" it said "torque up the bolts that attatch the mount to the chassis then torque up the nut on the end of the lower arm.
Not quite sure how the hell I am supposed to get a torque wrench on the nut when it fouls the chassis ????

Fuzz

Fuzz

I could get at the 19mm bolts and torqued them up no problem.
The 24mm nut however just had to be tighned by spanner to a torque of FT .
That is the anti lift kit finished and apart from a slight struggle levering the lower arm away from the chassis there were no other difficulties in fitting this kit.
If you have these tools (air tools make it faster, but ratchet can be used) There is no reason why it can't be done yourself.

Fuzz

oops lots of tools required for anti lift kit
this is all you need for *all* the front suspension changes I made.
Roll bars next or sway bars as they seem to be calling them at the moment !!

Fuzz

front sway bars and drop links were even easier than the castor kit to fit.
with the suspension fully loaded on axle stands.
I took off the plastic tray from under the car 10mm and 12mm bolts
then removed a brace in the centre of the engine cross member.
couldn't see the sway bar coming out without removing this, again 12mm bolts.
the standard drop links

Fuzz

and on go the new ones with copious amounts of grease,
not quite enough to coat bolt shafts with though, so some coppa slip was used here.

Fuzz

got bored, here's the shop.

Fuzz

lastly the rears. this is where I had most of the hassle.
the bracket that fits up on the chassis has to be fitted first.
after removing old unit.
One of the bolts is hidden behind the fuel filler pipe, no real problems taking the old one off, just a ring spanner job, flat by flat.
Fitting the new one however was some what more tricky, toys out the pram nearly, after I dropped the bolt for the umpteenth time.
then the batteries in the camera went flat.
I was tired it was late...no, read *early*.
tempers fraid, I stopped for a cuppa.
batteries charged and back to it.



still a little stressed, it annoyed me that the bolts were all different sizes (ie one set of bolts has a different nut size to the head of the bolt).
after multiple changes of spanners it all went together with ease.
I think it was only the lack of sleep that made the rears streesful to do.
and thats it all done in one evening.
started about 4 in the afternoon finished at around 1 in the morning with a food break or 2 in between.

Hardest parts were :
un doing nut on wishbone,
levering front mount away from body to enable new mount to be slid on.
the bolt hiding behind the fuel filler.
and that is all, I have had a lot worse
seem to have some spare bushes though
will have to get refund on them.

JJay

Did you get yourself tied up in knots getting the new bar passed the exhaust??

Do you not have to have the geometry reset once the anti lift kit is fitted??

I have the white line rear bar fitted (std front)and get lift off ovetsteer if provoked. I would be interested to know what effect the front has. If ever you choose to experiment and try the rear bar on it's own (ie whiteline rear with std front), could you post your thoughts on the difference felt when re-fitting the uprated front. Are you running std springs??


Thanks

Justin

Fuzz

bugger taking it all off again to test that out
sorry
no probs with exhaust versus ARB
lie under car head toward front looking up at wheel well, slide bar left twist clockwise, left hand down a bit then push away toward rear of car and ...* voila * out she pops.

Yes you do need the geometary set after doing the anti lift kit
and she is booked in on the 19th of this month at powerstation.
having a rr session done for good measure while i'm there

P.s which hole did you have the bolt in on the rear bar, I have taken a SWAG [1] at the hole furthest from the end of the bar assuming this is the stiffest setting.!!!

[1] = Sientific Wild **** Guess

Fuzz

oh yea !! and just to add non standard springs,
eibach springs, billy dampers (lowered 25mm I think)
the prodrive kit anyway.
could of edited it but my post count is a little low since changing names

JJay

Hole at the end of the bar is the softest, I didn't expect you to undo all of your hard work, but if you had to then....

As I said in my previous post, I am running just the rear bar (with Eibachs), set at the softest setting and have noticed the car to be much more biased towards lift of oversteer. I'm not sure what effect the front bar will make but can only suggest you take things easy in the wet with your bar set to the maximum. I would be interested to learn of your findings once you have driven a few miles, if your comments are favourable, I may consider purchasing a new front bar.

Justin